ROCK-A-RAMA

ROCK-A-RAMA

THE BEATLES - 1962-1966, 1966-1971 (Apple):: Great group w/hit potential galore. Quartet clefs own material exclusively, performs in variety of styles ranging from hard rock loaded w/teen appeal to quiet ballads (�Yesterday�). Hot chart possibilities — watch closely, Mr. Retailer!

PHAROAH SANDERS - Wisdom Through Music (ABC Impulse):: A weak set from a great musician, none of this stuff is particularly well-centered. The Exotic Afro Percussion number, along with the Genuine Native Instruments one, is wearing thin. Skip this one.

CONWAY TWITTY - She Needs Someone To Hold Her (When She Cries) (MCA):: Conway�s best album since his rockin� days. If John Huie�s'steel solo on �I�ve Just Destroyed the World� (by Willie Nelson and Ray Price, of course) doesn�t make your hair stand on end, nothing will, and his reading of Merle Haggard�s recent hit �It�s Not Love �But It�s Not Bad)� almost beats the original. This Un�s a monster!_

DAVID BOWIE - Images 1966-67 (London):: Most of the songs here are pure British pop: eclectic, charming ditties that are easy to remember and hum. But it�s superb pop, with enough lyrical and musical wrinkles to set it aside from the mainstream. This stuff should be heard by more people than just Bowie cultists; he was way ahead of his time when he was putting this stuff out and it holds up surprisingly well. Be sure to listen to �Please Mr. Gravedigger,� where Bowie narrates a grisly tale of murder and woe in a tour-deforce of black humor. No limp wrists here.

JOHNNY BUSH - Whiskey River/ There Stands The Glass (RCA):: In Wagnerian opera, what Johnny Bush has is called a heldentenor, but to country fans it�s just a powerful voice with a strange wobble in it that always seems to be on the verge of going out of control. You either like ol� John or you don�t, and if you do, or if you want to find out if you do, this collection of drinking/ debauchery songs is a fine place to hear him at his best.

McCOY TYNER — Extensions (Blue Note); Song For My Lady (Milestone):: Here�s some new jazz you certainly don�t have to be afraid of. Tyner�s explorations of the cosmos on his piano are as gentle and inviting as they come. Extensions features him with a 1970 jazz supergroup, including Alice Coltrane and Elvin Jones; Song is 1972 stuff with less well-known backers. They�re both mellifluous rhythmic discs, with the later one having more bite. Excellent stuff - check it out.

ARGENT — In Deep (Epic):: A formerly good rock band, all wet, in over their heads, as a glance at the album�s cover will clearly show. Requesciat in Pacem, kidz.

CHARLES MINGUS — Reevaluation: The Impulse Years (ABC Impulse); Charles Mingus and Friends In Concert (Columbia):: Two two-record sets from the greatest black composer since Ellington (and before Coleman). The Impulse set includes some of his best stuff, and it could be argued that if you only have room for one Mingus set in your life this is it. Beware, though - it�s habit-forming. The concert was Mingus� first in a while, and he fronts a huge orchestra playing some of his best compositions. A hideously flat vocal called �Eclipse� and Bill Cosby�s (drunk? doped?) blithering are the only low points — the rest of the set is stratospheric. Don�t listen to it all at once — it�ll wear ya out.

SKEETER DAVIS - The Hillbilly Singer (RCA):: This gal is something else! AM country stations don�t play her much, and I think she belongs on FM, where she�d blow Linda Ronstadt and other pretenders right off the radio. Her arrangements are far out for C&W (her version of �Bridge Over Troubled Waters� is the ONLY one I can stand), and this album, minus one singing commercial for Jesus, is her best, with amazing treatments of classics like �Color of the Blues,� �Half A Mind� and �It Wasn�t God Who Made HonkyTonk Angels.� A little different, and highly recommended.

JOE TEX — Spills the Beans (Dials):: Solid, unpretentious funk. Mr. Tex� songs go from Bobby Bland-style R&B (�Women Stealers�) to viciously cute stuff (�Cat�s Got Her Tongue�) to rockin� good preaching (�King Thaddeus,� �A Mother�s Prayer�) in the blink of an eye. Good-timey soul music, a solid gasss.

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THE ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN-IN-THEFIELDS - The Eight-Year-Old Mozart In Chelsea (Philips):: Mozart really did write stuff at the age of 8, and while it ain�t hardly up to his Eternal Masterpieces, it�s real good stuff for listening. Sometimes it�s easier to get into great composers through their simple stuff, anyway, and anybody who can�t dig this has a heart of flint and ears of lead. So there.

BILL MEDLEY - Smile (A&M):: Hurricane Smith notwithstanding, the trend toward prepubescent superstars continues, which should make Bill Medley�s latest a left field nonhit. Medley�s voice has always suggested the hoary sage, Methuselah, meeting Ray Charles in some Spectorian anteroom. Producers and material is where Willy gets stuck, so let�s hope against hope Tom Catalano (also N. Diamond�s producer) doesn�t get a Gordon Mills complex about' turning him into the next Englehump Jones. Worthwhile despite it all: Lulu�s �Oh Me Oh My� and Mann-Weil�s �It�s Not Easy.�

THE NETHERLANDS WIND ENSEMBLE -Little Marches by Great Masters (Philips):: Well, Antonin Vamicky may not be your idea of a Great Master, but this LP could easily be your Idea of a Good Time. It�s too easy to forget that the guys we�re supposed to revere had lotsa good times up their sleeves, and it takes folks like NWE to remind us. jggk